


Pinky Promises

by NowNumber5



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Healing from trauma, Inej Ghafa-centric, Kanej - Freeform, Kaz Brekker-centric, Not Beta Read, Pirate Inej Ghafa, kaz heals from his trauma in an actually realistic way, premarital handholding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 15:02:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29902893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NowNumber5/pseuds/NowNumber5
Summary: Sometimes, healing isn't a week in a hospital and bandages and medicine.Sometimes, healing is months at sea, and trying to be a better person, and admitting you need help.And sometimes, healing starts with a pinky promise.(aka Kaz learns to handle a very small amount of skin-to-skin-content with Inej's help)(but let's be real there's also going to be a lot of Inej-on-the-ship content because who doesn't love Inej)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18





	Pinky Promises

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! I hope you like this. I'm not the best writer but I hope you'll give this fic a chance, I'm very proud of it. Also, if you haven't yet, make sure you get water and eat something today!

When Inej returned to Ketterdam for the first time, it was pouring down rain in thick bullet-like curtains.

She’d been gone for almost a year, hunting traffickers, and had caught a lot of them. Saved a lot of people, that was the important part, she thought. The first time she’d opened a dark cargo hold and led out a whole shipload of girls her age and younger had been the best day of her life, only slightly beating out being reunited with her family.

Speaking of that moment, Inej could see the spot where she’d seen her parents for the first time in all those years from where she stood on the deck. It was blurry, because of the downpour, but she knew that spot as well as she knew the rooftops of the city. She’d memorized it, memorized that entire day, put it in a special box in her memories and sealed it up so it would stay there forever.

There was also a memory-box for each slaver she’d taken down, and the faces of each person she’d saved. It was a lot to hold onto, but Inej was ok with that. It was good to have a head filled with happy thoughts. 

The happiness wasn’t constant-it wouldn’t be constant for any normal person, and that was some comfort. There were still times she woke up from nightmares in a cold sweat-she didn’t scream. She never screamed, even when the dreams first came, because if she screamed Tante Heleen would beat her. But she was getting to a point where there were more good days than bad, more peaceful nights than agitated, and for now, that was enough for the Wraith.

As her ship slid into its berth her crew began to come back up to the deck, a few holding umbrellas and most, like her, simply wearing hoods to block the worst of the storm. At least it was simply rain, and not thunder or lightning-those were never good when navigating a ship into port. Her first mate, Juliet, came up to her side-she was the only other one who remained on deck the whole time. Most of the crew didn’t like rain.

“We’re fully docked, Captain,” the tall Kaelish girl said in her thick accent. “Ready to head ashore, and get out of the rain?”

She nodded. “And Juliet, for the last time, when we’re not on duty you can call me Inej.” Formality was a habit Inej couldn’t shake her employee/crewmate/friend of, and she suspected it had something to do with her past, which she guarded almost as strongly as Kaz did his. All Inej knew is she left her family home at the young age of eleven and never, ever looked back.

“Let’s get on with it, then,” she said, beckoning to the few stragglers who were left-they were all newer crew members, some of them saved from trafficker ships, and hesitated to do much at all without their captain’s approval. The rest had gone ahead-they knew they had a week and a half of shore leave and wanted desperately to get out of the rain. “Do any of you have a place to stay while we’re here?”

They all shook their heads as they walked down the gangplank after Inej and Juliet. “Well then, no problem. There should be plenty of space for you at the Van Eck mansion.”

Inej had an open invitation to stay with Wylan and Jesper whenever she was in town, and that invitation had been extended through letters to any crew members who needed it. Everyone made the short trek through the streets in relative silence, a lot of the crew probably in awe of the huge mansions. Of course, this was the nicer section of Ketterdam, far from the Barrel, the Slat, and the pleasure houses, which would have inspired a different kind of awe. Still, Inej wanted to visit the Slat at least once while she was in town, and Juliet wanted to see the whole city, so she’d probably come along.

“We’re here,” Inej said, facing the seven-or-so members of the crew with her and her first mate. She lifted the big brass door knocker and knocked three times. She heard the padding of feet with thick socks on, and the door opened.

“Inej! I didn’t know you were coming into town!,” said Wylan. “Come on, get inside, get out of the wet.”

She frowned and entered the door-she’d sent a letter a month ago, when they’d been in port in Noyvi Zem, and it really should have come by then. It wasn’t a big deal, probably, she told herself, gesturing to the rest of her crew that it was okay to come in. She realized Wylan was alone-normally, Jesper was home, and close by.

“Jesper’s meeting with Kaz about something,” he said, shrugging. “Not sure what.” He led them to a sitting area and everyone collapsed, exhausted from their weeks at sea and getting used to walking on land again.

“Is this your whole crew?”, he asked.

“No, just a few of them. This is my first mate, Juliet, and the rest of them are all pretty new to the Wraith, so they don’t have titles yet-this is Safiya, Anya, Maia, Eliese, Margaret, Florence, and Eugenie.”

Everyone gave a quick wave and mumbled a hello, which Wylan returned. “So, Inej, have you had any success so far?”

“Yeah, we’ve brought down-how many slavers has it been now, Jules?”

“Ten,” she replied. “Unless we’re counting the Shu ship we snuck all of those Grisha out of, then it’s eleven.”

They hadn’t sunk that ship because it was a government ship, and they didn’t want to start an international incident-they just knocked out all of the sailors and Juliet, a skilled Heartrender, user her powers to find the human cargo, which actually included Eliese and her cousin Margaret, who’d been the only prisoners from that load to accept the offer to join Inej’s crew.

There was a knock at the door again, and Wylan stood up to get it. “That’s probably Jesper. I’ll get the door, you can stay comfortable.”

Shortly after, Wylan returned to the parlor, a widely-grinning Jesper shortly following. “Long time, no see, Wraith! I though you’d forgotten about me.”

“How could I ever?” she said, standing up to accept his friendly hug.

Then, out of the corner of her eye, Inej caught a glimpse of a familiar crow cane, held by familiar black gloves.

She released herself from the hug and blinked a couple times, to make sure it wasn’t a hallucination.

But it wasn’t, and clear as a Ravkan summer day, Kaz Brekker stood right there in the doorframe of the room.

**Author's Note:**

> Please comment, I crave validation because I don't get enough from people IRL. Even if it's a criticism I'll take it.


End file.
